Tuscaloosa Magazine's winter reads

Tuscaloosa Magazine recommends winter reads.

By Carolyn MasonTuscaloosa Magazine

Published: Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, January 16, 2012 at 6:18 p.m.

Light the fire, warm the hot chocolate and prepare to cozy up with 10 hand-picked, winter reads. When the days are short and the nights are long, I want to lose myself in a good novel, a mind-bending mystery or a heartbreaking love story. The tomes are heftier now, with more layers designed to keep the chill out and the warmth in. I'm not particular about the physical book — e-reader, iPad, dead trees or audio book — anything works as long as the story shines light on a cold winter night.

“IQ84”

By Haruki Murakami

Q is for question mark and there are questions galore in Murakami's magical, mystical world set in Tokyo circa 1984. It's not hard to see why this is an international mega bestseller. The confounding and deliciously engrossing dream-like opus follows a young woman, Aomame, who gradually realizes she's entered a parallal existence that seamlessly converges with the narative of a ghostwriter named Tengo. Over the course of 932 pages, you tumble headfirst through a masterfully orchestrated wonder that might boggleyour brain with its brilliance. Pair with Sake and sushi, but prepare to lose a chunk of your life until you reach the satisfying conclusion.

The Art of Fielding

By Chad Harbach

Harbach hits a home run with his fictional debut that may seem to be just another baseball book, but is really about relationships, family, love and the truths we seek. Set on a college campus, it's a comedy, romance, bromance and guide-to-life. While the baseball writing is pitch perfect, he steals home with humorous, razor-sharp prose that makes you look at the national pastime in a different light. Keep a bowl of fresh poppped popcorn nearby.

The Barbarian Nurseries

By Hector Tobar

L.A. journalist Héctor Tobar sets his novel in sunny Southern California, penning a scathing look at the rich and priveldged and the immigrants who serve them. His heroine, illegal Mexican immigrant Araceli, cooks and cleans for an affluent family. The economy crashes, the family melts down and Araceli takes their young, accidentally abandoned boys on a quest to find their estranged grandfather. Don't worry, everyone gets what they have coming to them.

The Marriage Plot

By Jeffrey Eugenides

Crank up some Talking Heads while reading this love triangle between three seniors at Brown in the early '80s. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of “Middlesex” describes a year in the life of Madeline, an English major romantic who wrote her thesis on Jane Austen and George Elliot, Leonard, brilliant and volatile, and Mitchell who is spiritually adrift. Funny, witty and perfect for literary types who can laugh at their own pretensions.

Close Your Eyes

By Amanda Eyre Ward

Six-year-old Lauren Mahdian and her 8-year-old brother Alex spend the night in their backyard tree house. The next morning, they discover their mother's body and watch as their father is arrested for his wife's murder.Years later, Lauren is forced to revisit her memories when her beloved brother mysteriously disappears, and the truth of that night unravels. An engrossing mystery that keeps you flipping the pages until the very end.

The Forgotten Waltz

By Anne Enright

Beware of love affairs that pull you beyond regret. When married-to-others Gina and Sean first set eyes on each other, their gaze lingers a second too long. Irish Booker Prize winner Anne Enright tells their story of passion, obsession and the destruction that follows their illicit love. You don't want to root for anyone, but Enright seduces you with her plot. Like a car wreck on the side of the road, you cannot look away from it.

Zone One: A Novel

By Colson Whitehead

I know what you are thinking. Zombie lit? Really? Trust me, Colson Whitehead's post-apocalyptical, pandemic-ruined Manhattan is strewn with the dead, the living dead and the handful of survivors all suffering from Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder. Smart, hip, bleak and well-written, you won't want to leave the zone. Warning: Read with the lights on.

The Night Strangers

By Chris Bohjalian

Airline pilot Chip Linton ditches his crippled jet in Lake Champion, hoping to pull off a Sully. Instead, 39 passengers die. Chris Bohjalian's scary, psychological ghost story picks up when Linton moves his wife and twin daughters to northern New Hampshire, where they settle into a rambling Victorian home. Things begin to go awry starting with the discovery of a basement door, sealed with 39 bolts, and the townspeoples' strange obsession with his daughters. Ghosts, witches and deranged herbalists, oh my!

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

By Debbie Nathan

Who would fake such a preposterous story and think they could pull it off? Published in 1973, the sensational bestselling story about a woman with 16 personalities and later the movie starring Sally Field always seemed terrifying, but thrillingly implausible. Debbie Nathan's painstaking research reveals the hoax perpetrated by the three main characters: the patient, the shrink and the journalist who wrote the fabricated story.

Blue Nights

By Joan Didion

“In certain latitudes there comes a span of time approaching and following the summer solstice, some weeks in all, when the twilights turn long and blue,” says Joan Didion, the beloved author of “A Year of Magical Thinking.” In that memoir, she copes with the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Now, she's facing life without her daughter, Quintana Roo. The heartbreaking loss of her adopted daughter only two years after the death of her husband seems more than anyone could bear. Didion reflects on her life and losses and her fears about aging and illness. You cannot fail to be moved by this brutally frank memoir.

<p>Light the fire, warm the hot chocolate and prepare to cozy up with 10 hand-picked, winter reads. When the days are short and the nights are long, I want to lose myself in a good novel, a mind-bending mystery or a heartbreaking love story. The tomes are heftier now, with more layers designed to keep the chill out and the warmth in. I'm not particular about the physical book — e-reader, iPad, dead trees or audio book — anything works as long as the story shines light on a cold winter night. </p><p><b>“IQ84”</b></p><p><i>By Haruki Murakami</i></p><p>Q is for question mark and there are questions galore in Murakami's magical, mystical world set in Tokyo circa 1984. It's not hard to see why this is an international mega bestseller. The confounding and deliciously engrossing dream-like opus follows a young woman, Aomame, who gradually realizes she's entered a parallal existence that seamlessly converges with the narative of a ghostwriter named Tengo. Over the course of 932 pages, you tumble headfirst through a masterfully orchestrated wonder that might boggleyour brain with its brilliance. Pair with Sake and sushi, but prepare to lose a chunk of your life until you reach the satisfying conclusion.</p><p> </p><p><b>The Art of Fielding</b></p><p><i>By Chad Harbach</i></p><p>Harbach hits a home run with his fictional debut that may seem to be just another baseball book, but is really about relationships, family, love and the truths we seek. Set on a college campus, it's a comedy, romance, bromance and guide-to-life. While the baseball writing is pitch perfect, he steals home with humorous, razor-sharp prose that makes you look at the national pastime in a different light. Keep a bowl of fresh poppped popcorn nearby.</p><p> </p><p><b>The Barbarian Nurseries</b></p><p><i>By Hector Tobar</i></p><p>L.A. journalist Héctor Tobar sets his novel in sunny Southern California, penning a scathing look at the rich and priveldged and the immigrants who serve them. His heroine, illegal Mexican immigrant Araceli, cooks and cleans for an affluent family. The economy crashes, the family melts down and Araceli takes their young, accidentally abandoned boys on a quest to find their estranged grandfather. Don't worry, everyone gets what they have coming to them. </p><p><b>The Marriage Plot</b></p><p><i>By Jeffrey Eugenides</i></p><p>Crank up some Talking Heads while reading this love triangle between three seniors at Brown in the early '80s. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of “Middlesex” describes a year in the life of Madeline, an English major romantic who wrote her thesis on Jane Austen and George Elliot, Leonard, brilliant and volatile, and Mitchell who is spiritually adrift. Funny, witty and perfect for literary types who can laugh at their own pretensions. </p><p> </p><p><b>Close Your Eyes</b></p><p><i>By Amanda Eyre Ward</i></p><p>Six-year-old Lauren Mahdian and her 8-year-old brother Alex spend the night in their backyard tree house. The next morning, they discover their mother's body and watch as their father is arrested for his wife's murder.Years later, Lauren is forced to revisit her memories when her beloved brother mysteriously disappears, and the truth of that night unravels. An engrossing mystery that keeps you flipping the pages until the very end.</p><p><b>The Forgotten Waltz</b></p><p><i>By Anne Enright</i></p><p> Beware of love affairs that pull you beyond regret. When married-to-others Gina and Sean first set eyes on each other, their gaze lingers a second too long. Irish Booker Prize winner Anne Enright tells their story of passion, obsession and the destruction that follows their illicit love. You don't want to root for anyone, but Enright seduces you with her plot. Like a car wreck on the side of the road, you cannot look away from it. </p><p><b>Zone One: A Novel</b></p><p><i>By Colson Whitehead</i></p><p>I know what you are thinking. Zombie lit? Really? Trust me, Colson Whitehead's post-apocalyptical, pandemic-ruined Manhattan is strewn with the dead, the living dead and the handful of survivors all suffering from Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder. Smart, hip, bleak and well-written, you won't want to leave the zone. Warning: Read with the lights on. </p><p><b>The Night Strangers</b></p><p><i>By Chris Bohjalian</i></p><p>Airline pilot Chip Linton ditches his crippled jet in Lake Champion, hoping to pull off a Sully. Instead, 39 passengers die. Chris Bohjalian's scary, psychological ghost story picks up when Linton moves his wife and twin daughters to northern New Hampshire, where they settle into a rambling Victorian home. Things begin to go awry starting with the discovery of a basement door, sealed with 39 bolts, and the townspeoples' strange obsession with his daughters. Ghosts, witches and deranged herbalists, oh my!</p><p><b>Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case</b></p><p><i>By Debbie Nathan</i></p><p>Who would fake such a preposterous story and think they could pull it off? Published in 1973, the sensational bestselling story about a woman with 16 personalities and later the movie starring Sally Field always seemed terrifying, but thrillingly implausible. Debbie Nathan's painstaking research reveals the hoax perpetrated by the three main characters: the patient, the shrink and the journalist who wrote the fabricated story. </p><p><b>Blue Nights </b></p><p><i>By Joan Didion</i></p><p>“In certain latitudes there comes a span of time approaching and following the summer solstice, some weeks in all, when the twilights turn long and blue,” says Joan Didion, the beloved author of “A Year of Magical Thinking.” In that memoir, she copes with the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Now, she's facing life without her daughter, Quintana Roo. The heartbreaking loss of her adopted daughter only two years after the death of her husband seems more than anyone could bear. Didion reflects on her life and losses and her fears about aging and illness. You cannot fail to be moved by this brutally frank memoir.</p>